PAUL Truscott claims he is ready to start living up to his "world title potential" after a weight-making related illness finally convinced him he is no longer a super-featherweight.

PAUL Truscott claims he is ready to start living up to his "world title potential" after a weight-making related illness finally convinced him he is no longer a super-featherweight.

Truscott looked a physical wreck in his disastrous defeat to British champion Gary Buckland last March and said his 9st 4lb days were over at the end of 2012.

Yet he contradicted himself by accepting a February 16 fight in Crawley against Ben Jones for the vacant WBO European super-featherweight title.

Saturday’s contest is now off however as the South Bank fighter was laid low by a virus when he got down to just under 10 stone, with Scotsman Kris Hughes taking his place.

Now Truscott insists he is ready to make a charge at lightweight and rejuvenate a career which showed so much promise when he won the Commonwealth featherweight title in his 11th fight but has derailed since.

The 26-year-old should begin life in his new division on March 9, on the undercard of Stuart Hall’s first Commonwealth bantamweight title defence against Isaac Nettey at the Dolphin Centre in Darlington.

“There is no way I can make super-featherweight healthily any more,” Truscott confirmed.

“I got to just under 10 stone and caught a cold and virus, and there was no chance I could take another 10 pounds off without it destroying me. I was a dead man walking against Buckland and he still couldn’t put me away, but there was no point going through it all again.

“I’m definitely a lightweight now and Denis (Power, trainer) won’t let me go back down to super feather again, because he’s looking out for my best interests.”

Truscott has been irked by seeing his old victim Alexander Miskirtchian go on to become European featherweight champion while his own fortunes have faded in a morass of postponements, key defeats and weight issues.

But he is taking heart from the example of tough Liverpool fighter Derry Mathews, who has been reborn since moving up to lightweight.

“When I look at Miskirtchian, he has been European champion for ages and I’ve been kicking my heels,” Truscott said.

“I’m sick of champing at the bit and then by the time fights have come around I’ve either killed myself to make weight, or they have been called off.

“But I’m a desperate fighter now and I’m fresh as a daisy because of all the inactivity.

“People can say I’m talking out of my backside but I don’t care what anybody says. For me, I should be fighting for world titles now if I’d have been active.”

Truscott added: “But I take a lot of encouragement from Derry Mathews. He had a couple of bad defeats at lower weights, then moved up to lightweight and breathed new life into his career.

“Now I can just be me and concentrate on my boxing instead of worrying about making weight.

“I can do lightweight and I want to make up for lost time.”

Truscott’s former South Bank stablemate Shafiq Asif is boxing on the Hall-Nettey bill too, along with Darlington’s Neil Hepper and Spennymoor rookie Ben Jackson. Opponents have yet to be announced.

SOUTH Bank flyweight Francis Croes is also boxing on March 9 - and on paper looks like he has a good chance of recording only his second professional win.

The 24-year-old faces Dagenham’s Shaun Hussain - who drew his one and only professional fight to date - in a rearranged bout at Grays in Essex.

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